Jason Todd x vampire!reader
trigger warning: blood mention, alcohol, murder mention, implied smut
here’s a quick spooooky imagine. Female reader is kind of a dick to Jason, oh well.
it’s technically after halloween but this is definitely a halloween inspired imagine, so happy spooky season for all who celebrate!
Maybe I’ll write a sequel to this, who knows?
Edit: I did write a sequel to this! Read it here: I’ll Make it Work With What I’ve Got
Edit: I wrote more than a sequel. rest of series is on my masterlist
cchhchkkkk--Hmmgghh-grrrrrggrr-hfhggg
You're on the streets of your childhood home, playing in the spray of the hose your mother turns on you and your siblings. Dad's mowing the grass on the lawn, the mower growling loudly as he pushes it in neat clean lines.
It's summer, 1959, and you feel as young as you've ever felt. You shriek as the hose drenches you again, making your tulle party dress go damp and stick to your legs.
Hmmmghhhr-hghghh-chchkkkk
The mower rings loud in your ears as Dad aims it closer to the street. Smiling, your mother puts down the hose, still streaming water that runs down the driveway. She stands up, jumps into the air, turns into a bat and flies off.
You smile, waving goodbye at her as her shape grows fainter against the clouds. As she disappears, the sky turns dark, rain suddenly pouring down by the buckets.
You frown, looking hastily at your dress. If it gets wet, it'll be ruined, and Mom will kill you, it'll be the second nice dress you've messed up this year.
You begin to run, hoping to get out of the rain and save the dress. You sprint down the street you grew up on. As soon as you pass them, houses melt like witches in water.
The mower somehow gets louder, even after you've left Dad behind. You ignore it, reaching the end of the street and bolting into the road, heedless of the traffic.
Suddenly, you're falling, landing with an inelegant thump in your bed.
You exhale sharply, squirming under the blankets. You open your eyes to find your bedroom, just as you'd left it when you went to sleep that morning. You stifle a groan, pulling the blankets over your head to try and get some more sleep while you can.
Beside you: chhhkkgmmmhfhh
You roll your eyes, kicking a foot out unapologetically. "Jason. Get up. Your stomach's too loud."
The man in bed with you let's out an "oof," rolling away in case you strike out again. "What a way to wake up," he gripes, wincing as he curls around his stomach protectively. "You got me good."
You shrug. "Your stomach's growling, it even showed up in my dream."
"Yeah?" Jason grins at you. "What'd you dream, babe?"
You let the "babe" slide past. "I dreamed I was a kid again, and my dad was mowing the lawn."
Jason looks at you intensely for a moment. "Yeah? You've never told me where you grew up."
You look at him blankly. You like Jason, and the sex is good enough that you're working hard not to fuck it up and let him learn too much about you. "I grew up in one of the suburbs of Jersey City."
He looks like he's going to ask you more, which you hope he doesn't. The real question to avoid (although he probably won't ask it) is when did you grow up.
At that moment, Jason stomach makes a comedically loud growl, saving you from further questions. Jason laughs. "It's a pretty good sound affect," he says, and you smile at him.
"Maybe you can record it and offer it to films," you say. "Anytime they need a car engine revving, or a lion roaring."
"Ouch, babe." You shoot him a look, which he ignores. "Want to go another round?" Jason asks, leaning forward to kiss you.
You let him, lips moving against his for a few moments. His stomach interrupts you.
"No," you say, shoving him off you. Jason cackles, he seems to enjoy your heartlessness. "Go out and get something to eat before you starve or something."
"You really don't have food in the house?" Jason asks.
"No, I never have food in the house," you answer tonelessly. "I've got my weird diet, remember?"
"Right, right." Jason gets out of bed, begins to get dressed. "Can I check in the fridge?"
"No you may not," you answer, reaching over to grab your phone off the bedside table. You check the time, it's after sundown, but you'll wait a bit before going out, just to be safe.
"Why?" Jason asks, not for the first time. "What have you got in there?"
"Severed body parts," you answer. "I'm on the Santa Clarita Diet."
Jason laughs again. He's being infuriatingly happy today. You prefer it when he broods, and then takes it out on you by being rougher in bed. "Alright, you don't want me to see whatever weird diet shit you're on, that's fine, doll."
You roll your eyes. Actually, the thing you don't want him to see about the fridge is that it's nearly dead empty. "You don't want to come eat with me?" Jason offers, already knowing the answer.
"I'm not hungry. And besides, I have to work." You never want to eat with him.
"Suit yourself," Jason says. He buckles his belt, leans back over you in bed. "Can I get a goodbye kiss?"
"No," you say, rolling your eyes again. Jason gets a kick out of that one. You wonder why he finds your lack of commitment so funny. Maybe it's because he's usually the one running away, and this is a nice change of pace.
"Please leave," you say, unplugging your phone and holding it in front of your face. "Yes ma'am," Jason says mockingly. "I know the way out."
He leaves. You lie in bed for a little while longer, then get up yourself, padding into the kitchen in your underwear. You open the fridge, pull out a bottle of O-negative you'd gotten yesterday from Carol, and down half of it in one go.
You really should be more careful to make sure Jason doesn't open the fridge, you think to yourself. Sleeping with a human is horrible sometimes. It's hard enough to remember to buy toilet paper, you're not about to blow your entire paycheck on a bunch of food you're going to have to throw out later.
Well, if he does snoop through your fridge, you could always kill him. It's unfortunate, but you've done it before.
Sighing, you take the bottle with you into your room as you get dressed for your shift at the bar.
---
Jason meets Dick on the roof of Gotham National Bank. It's been a while since he'd come so far uptown, but Dick was calling in a favor.
"What do you want, Goldie?" Jason gripes, putting more bite into his voice than he really felt. He was always in a good mood after he'd spent the night with you.
You were a vigilante's dream. Jason can't believe how lucky he was to meet you at that club a few months ago. You worked nights as a bartender, so you kept the same schedule as he did, you never questioned it when he had to disappear or bail on you (your indifference is sometimes so prickly Jason can't swallow it, but he's not admitting that to himself right now), and the sex was great. This is turning out to be one of the longest, most stable relationships of Jason's life. Who cares if sometimes you were cold and unfeeling?
Across the roof, Dick raises an eyebrow. "Surprise you came when we called, Little Wing. What's gotten into you?"
Irritated that Dick still knows him so well, Jason crosses his arms over his chest. "None of your business, Dickface."
"Oooh, it's a girl, isn't it?" Dick asks delightedly.
"Fuck off. Why am I here, what does the big, bad Bat want with me now?" Jason demands.
"We're investigating a vampire coven tomorrow, and we want backup," Dick says, not batting an eye.
Jason stares at him. "Vampires."
Jason gives him a disbelieving look. Dick shrugs. "It's Gotham, remember? Takes all sorts to make a world."
"Man, as if our humans aren't weird enough," Jason complains. "Alright, yeah, I'll be your backup when we investigate the fucking vampire coven, send me the details."
If anyone asked you (they don't, but you're starting to wish they did) you'd tell them that the whole "coven" model is honestly, a little outdated.
It's not that you don't like being part of a group, you do. But nowadays, vamps can slide under the radar. With a thriving black market, and humanity with as desperate and kinky as you've ever seen them, all you need is a searchbar, a guy in a blood-bank willing to slip you some under the counter, or someone in a bad enough situation that they're willing to sell you their blood off the books. You don't even really need to kill anyone anymore, which means you can forsake the restrictive coven-living for some privacy.
That said, your coven is pretty cool. You've all been in Gotham since forever, practically for hundreds of years, although you're one of the newer members. Things had calmed down enough by the time you joined that everybody already lived more or less by themselves, or in groups of two. Some of them liked to switch it up every once in a while, move in with other members to keep things interesting. You've always been on your own, preferring to live by yourself.
You make it a point to come to the bimonthly meetings, even if they mostly devolve into petty shit-talking about other vampires/covens. It's important to be part of the team, just in case shit really does shit the fan, although coven wars died out half a century ago.
Janice is hosting this meeting, she'd found an abandoned office building on the edge of amusement mile. You don't see why you guys can't just meet at someone's house, but everybody insists the broken-down buildings add to the ambiance.
"So, anyway, Ralph was trying to move in on my blood guy," Janice is saying. Crystal passes you the vodka, and you dump a heaping amount into the cup of b-positive you're nursing. You share a look; you're pretending to be annoyed and over the gossip, but really, you eat up the drama like you'd used to eat up real food.
"Didn't he come onto you half a century ago?" Crystal asks you.
"Oh my god, yes, I'd forgotten about that," you answer, wincing in Janice's direction. "He's such a fucking idiot."
"Thank you," Janice says, toasting you with her cup. "I told him that two vamps would be suspicious, but he went and asked Gerald anyway, and then Gerald told me Ralph was paying more, and threatened to call the police on me, and so long story short I had to kill him," Janice finishes, taking a sip. "And now I need a new blood guy."
"What a shame," Bill says from across the circle. "I'll see if I can hook you up with mine," he offers.
"Cheers," Janice thanks him. "I'd forgotten how good it is fresh, though."
Nasir nods. He's further gone than anyone else, spinning around and around in an abandoned office chair. "I know we don't have to kill them, anymore, but sometimes, when I want a treat..." he shrugs.
You wrinkle your nose. "But it's such a hassle," you argue. "I mean, sometimes people come looking and asking questions, and the blood gets everywhere, and the victims can be so annoying. I mean, like, is it really worth it?"
Crystal gives you a smirk. "What?" You say self-consciously.
"You've gone soft since you started fucking that human," she says affectionately.
"I have not," you shoot back, probably a touch too quickly. You're thrilled you can't blush anymore, otherwise your cheeks would be beet red.
"You're in love with a human?" Nasir asks, grinning at you.
"I am not!" You shout, resisting the urge to stamp your foot.
"Ooh, you are!" Janice says happily. "You were with him tonight, I can smell the human on you."
"We can't smell the human on vampires," you roll your eyes. "It doesn't transfer over."
"Your human scenting olfactory glands grow in when you hit 75," Bill says from across the circle. Nasir giggles, and this time you really do stamp your foot. "I know we don't change, I haven't fallen for that in years!" you insist. Bill gives a belly laugh at your expense.
"You've been with this guy for months, right?" Crystal asks you.
"We're not together. We just fuck, sometimes," you say, playing with your hands in your lap.
Janice shoots you an amused look. "You're going to kill him? Didn't we teach you not to play with your food?"
"You fuck practically every human you kill, Janice," you ague accusatorily. Crystal laughs outright as Janice toasts you again. "Damn straight."
"You're not doing anything wrong," Bill reassures you. He's the oldest member of your coven, the de-facto leader if you had one. "We've all been there before."
"I had a human partner for a long time," Nasir tells you. He smiles faintly over the rim of his glass. "We were in love."
"That's gross," Janice says in her point-blank way. Nasir shrugs. "To each his own."
"What was it like? Being with them," you ask quietly. Nasir considers your question. "He was wonderful," he says after a while. "Very understanding. We met during the Crusades, we were together for as long as we had. It was hard," he admits. "Letting him go."
You nod slowly, pursing your lips. "He knew, of course," Nasir continues. "Does yours know?"
You shake your head. "No, I haven't--"
"Babe?" You freeze. Oh, no.
"What are you doing here?" Janice is wearing the most shit-eating grin. Babe? she mouths at you.You ignore her, turning around to see a man walking toward you across the lobby. He's wearing reinforced pants, chest armor with a red bat splashed across it, and a helmet that he fiddles with. You watch as he unlocks the helmet and pulls it from his head, revealing dark locks and a strong jawline that definitely belong to Jason, domino mask aside.
"Jason?" You croak absolutely shocked. This is mortifying. "What are you doing here? And what the fuck are you wearing?"
"His name is Jason?" Crystal coos behind you. You flap a hand at her behind your back.
"Oh, uh." Jason looks down at his chest, runs a hand through his hair. "Shit. Um, yeah. I'm the Red Hood?"
You stare at him blankly. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
"Ouch." You look past Jason and see that there are two other men behind him, one in a black suit with a blue bird emblazoned on the front. The other is in a black and red suit, with a yellow and black cape falling to the ground behind him.
“The Red Hood? The scourge of criminals everywhere?” Jason tries again. You have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Very smooth,” the man in the yellow cape says. “You have such a way with women.”
The other man with Jason cracks up, and Jason turns around and gives Cape the finger.
“You’re the vigilantes of Gotham, aren’t you?” Bill says from across the room.
“The what?” Janice asks. At least you’re not alone here.
“Yeah, you guys go around, like, saving people, right?” Bill continues.
“Yeah, that’s us,” Blue Bird confirms. Jason looks at you. “Have you really not heard of us?”
You shrug. “We don’t get out much,” Crystal offers from her chair.
“Right,” Cape says. “Speaking of, we’re here to investigate some vampires.”
Your coven and you share looks. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
You can’t see his eyes, but you can feel Jason staring at you, hoping against hope you don’t know anything about that.
“Nope,” you answer. “We’ve never heard of any vampires in Gotham.”
“Cool,” Cape says. “Cool. So what are you doing here?”
You share another look with your coven. “We’re homeless?” Nasir offers.
You rub a hand over your eyes. This isn’t going well.
“Totally,” Cape says. “I totally believe that. Any chance I can see what you guys have in your cups?”
Another pause. “I think that’s our business, son,” Bill tries.
“Oh my fucking god,” Jason mutters. “Are you a vampire?” he asks you directly.
“Jason, it’s 2021,” Crystal shakes her head. “You can’t just ask people if they’re a vampire.”
“Dude, you fucked a vampire,” blue bird says, smiling in disbelief. “You got it on with Dracula.”
“Whoa, wait, Jason, you had sex with one of these people?” Cape says looking up at Jason with a broad grin. “Seriously?”
“Shut up, RR,” Jason says tiredly. He’s still staring at you.
“This the best day of my life,” Cape sighs happily. “Jason, you dumb motherfucker.” Something occurs to him. “How old are you?” he asks you. “Are you old enough to be his Mom?”
You look at the ground. “Ah!” Blue bird screams in delight. “Wait until B hears this!”
“I can’t believe I fucked a vampire,” Jason murmurs to himself.
“That’s xenophobic,” you say primly. “That’s prejudiced.”
“I think I get to be a little shocked that I put my dick in some creature of the night, that I didn’t even know existed until 24 hours ago.
“Oh, what, vampires don’t get to be horny?” you shoot at him. “Grow up, Jason.”
“Yeah, what are you going to do, put us all in horny jail?” Crystal asks.
“A coven of horny vampires,” Cape says to himself. “Fantastic.”
“Wait, did you bite him?” Blue bird asks.
“You didn’t bite me, did you?” Jason asks in horror.
“No, I didn’t bite you, dumbass,” you say rudely. “I would have told you first.”
“Well, you’re not very communicative,” Jason answers snidely.
“It’s true, she isn’t!” Nasir shouts from his chair.
“Wow, you guys really are together,” Janice says with raised eyebrows.
“We’re not ‘together,’” you say exasperatingly.
“We’re not?” Jason asks. You throw your hands in the air. “Do you or don’t you want to be with a vampire?”
“Hold on,” Cape steps neatly between you. “We’re here for a reason.”
“Oh, yeah,” Blue bird says. “There have been bodies found with the blood drained and body parts missing. Is that you guys?”
Everyone in the circle shakes their head. “Would you tell us if you were lying?” Cape asks shrewdly.
“Out of respect for a true love of one of our own, of course,” Janice says sanctimoniously.
“Fuck off, Janice,” you mutter.
“We hardly ever kill people anymore,” Crystal smiles at them.
“That was very reassuring,” Cape says. “I feel reassured.”
“It’s probably not a vampire. We don’t do anything with the guts,” Bill explains. “We can ask some of the other Gotham covens if they know anything about it.”
“You’d do that?” Jason asks.
Bill looks at you. “Anything for a true love of one of our own.”
Everyone aside from you and Jason laughs while you roll your eyes. “Are we done here?” Jason asks the two men with him.
Blue bird gives him a knowing look. “Yeah, we’re through.”
“Come on, then,” he turns to leave. Janice makes a shooing motion at your back. “Yeah, fine,” you mutter. “Jason, wait,” you say, catching up to him. “We need to talk.”
He waits for you, which you think is a good sign. “Yeah, okay.”
“Nice to meet you all!” Nasir calls from behind you. “You too!” Blue bird calls back. You and Jason let them go on ahead, walking at a slow pace across amusement mile.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jason asks after a while.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” You ask, gesturing at his getup.
“Jason, that was a stupid question,” you say after thinking a moment. “I’m literally one of the undead.”
Jason screws up his face, not saying anything. You walk along in silence. To your surprise, you’re uncomfortable with the possibility that he’ll scorn or reject you. You want to know what he’s thinking, what he thinks of you.
“Can you take off the mask?” You ask suddenly.
“Is that why you always pushed me away,” he asks, ignoring you. You let out a huff. “I guess.” You try not to overanalyze yourself. “Maybe.”
“Jason, please take off the mask,” you ask again. He sighs, pulls the domino from his face. His expression is distrustful, which makes your heart thud.
“You kill people,” Jason says, like he’s trying to figure something out,
“Sometimes,” you say. “Not often, but sometimes.”
“I kill people,” Jason says. You nod, try to pretend like you’re not shocked by this. “But I only kill bad people.”
You sigh. “This is kind of lame, but...when I do kill people, I try and find gross ones. Rapists, abusers, that sort of thing.” You stare at the ground. If the coven found out, they’d laugh you out of town.
Jason stops, grabs your hand. “I can work with that,” he says smiling.You find yourself smiling back.
“I really like you,” he starts, and you let out a short laugh. “Jason, you don’t know me,” you say gently.
“Well, I think I like you, and I’d like to get to know you,” he amends. “Think you can let me do that.”
Are you really going to get close to a human? You look him over. Fuck it. The sex is, after all, fantastic. And you like Jason, against your better judgment. “Yeah, you can get to know me.”
Jason grins at you. “Cool.” He leans down for a kiss, and you meet him halfway. Smiling to yourself, you bite lightly at this lips, letting your teeth sharpen. He pulls back with a gasp, pupils dilated. “Oh, yeah,” he says in a rough voice. “I can work with this.”
You laugh at him, pulling him down by the collar of his armor to kiss him again.
